The Legend of Lake Hollow

Pretty much that...

The good ol' very dependable 'Cabin in the Woods' setting, which I personally will probably never get tired of, and I mean that sincerely because when used well it can be very effective.

Creepy woods, mysterious and threatening sounds, the elements are here for a good film. But, they just simply are not put together very well. The acting is not the greatest. I would say for me personally IF the story itself had been executed much better and the director had a clue about how to create the narrative in an engaging way, sure, I probably wouldn't have been that bothered by the acting even though it wasn't that great.

And, as Leo at The Geek Legion of Doom said, which I ALWAYS check out when I'm interested in a movie, it is an excellent site and Leo is a great reviewer, it was like the entire film was setup, setup, setup, setup... and then an abrupt ending in the last 5 minutes. Not structured terribly well. And yes, you have the usual people doing dumb things to move the plot along.

So, yeah, not a bad idea at all and some very good atmosphere with great potential, basically all wasted on a rather poor effort.

Gathering together at a remote cabin, a group of friends decide to catch up while they stay there which soon devolves into a series of odd encounters around the area when they notice something odd on the local trail cameras, eventually revealing the unnatural threat in the woods with them.

This was a wholly underwhelming and barely watchable genre effort. Among the main problems with this one is the wholly understated and sluggish pacing that never allows the film to generate any kind of interest in anything it does. The whole idea of the group coming out to the woods and going through a series of strange occurrences while they stay there serves as a fine starting point for these kinds of films to get something going, yet there's just nothing going on here that manages to build any kind of fear or suspense involving the different events here. The main focus is on the group trying to get to know each other or spend more time dealing with the potential romance between everyone that there's so little of any interest for such long stretches of the film it's entirely possible to look away for minutes on end listening to blandly delivered dialog without missing anything. It also doesn't help that so much of the running time is spent with these factors that when it gets to the horror segments there's so little of it present that none of it makes any sense. Because we're introduced to the Native American folklore bits at the very end while the idea of the group getting exposed to weird noises, it feels like an explanation for the events should've been handled far earlier so that something starts to make sense as to what's going on. The creature gets so little screentime that it's a near-afterthought compared to the more effective elements usually featured with just a few different aspects to help get more of an impact on what's going on, and while it does admirably at creating a fantastic atmospheric take with the mysterious noises coming from the woods and the encounters with the different doppelgangers present, it's not enough to overcome what's going on.

Rated Unrated/R: Violence and Language.

I started the film optimistically. The setting, camerawork, sound and lighting all looked really good, some films you can tell straight away that they are "budget." The acting was unfortunately very poor, the script and dialogue was very hard to listen to at times.

Mark saying something along the lines of "If I find them I'll rip their throat out" was so cringe....he looked like a geography teacher and wasn't at all a "bad boy" type character haha.

There were too many pauses between sentences and dialogue, which felt very unnatural, leading me to get bored and frustrated.

The overall story was okay and with a better script and better actors it could have made a basic but entertaining film.

I wouldn't watch this film again or recommend it to anyone.

Right out of the gate this film loses points from the really negative characters, NOT actors, but the actual plot characters. They are ALL flawed and very unlikeable people. I have to admit that with 15 minutes I really did not care if they lived or died. The main character is a self-absorbed yuppy who has more of a concern for his "paid cash" car than the obviously dangerous situation they are in and his brother is an even more self-absorbed Millennial who is more interested in boffing his extremely annoying girlfriend than doing much more than whining the entire film.

The girlfriend's girlfriend was so detached from the predicament that I began to suspect that she was somehow involved in the danger. While the others are beginning to awaken to the evil going on around them, she is hitting on one of the other characters!

The acting was so-so, but I have seen MUCH worse and I blame the condition of the acting mostly on the stiff and emotional lacking dialogue...you can only be as good as the lines you are given.

Overall, the plot reminded of dozens of other movies based on the very same story, and there really are NO new ideas blended into it which might have freshened it up!

Not worth the time or effort to watch it!

Promised a lot, delivered nothing.

Given that it is a relatively new movie, I expected something new and different which would reflect the advances made in film making but to be honest it reminded me of something made in the 1980's to 1990's which if I am honest, provided some of the best horror movies to date. The acting was absolutely awful, overdone and disingenuous and the story was dull and predictable with a 'yawn' even more predictable ending. Obviously a low budget movie but some of the best flicks have a low budget so no excuse really. Can't un-recommend this highly enough. Avoid....